LE

Gods I hope not. Whilst the mine sweepers would certainly come in handy, one of Iran's projected reactions to getting bombed is possibly mining the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz for some oil tanker fun, I wouldn't like to be on Illustrious if things kicked off. They'd have to stick extremely close to some American Ticonderoga cruisers just to be safe from all the Iranian anti-ship missiles they'd be likely to fire off on the off chance of hitting something, and honestly I don't think a single destroyer and frigate would cut it. Shades of San Carlos Water anyone?

LE

I hope that the Americans are sending a couple of carriers groups at the same time then, otherwise it isn't exactly going to be all that intimidating to Iran. Laughable more like. One carrier, one destroyer, a frigate and three support vessels aren't so much a threat as a massive target. Rattle off a salvo of fifty or a hundred anti-ship missles just to pick a random number and it's all so much scrap metal on the bottom.

What's the point anyway? We've got land bases at practically no great distance in region anyway. Hell, do we even have any planes yet that can fly off of the carrier or are we just sending the ship itself and hoping no-one realises? For the twenty or so planes it could carry why not just move them to Bahraini, Omani or Saudi airfields? Would be much simpler to organise I would have thought.

Edit: Here's a newspaper article on the idea from the Telegraph. Only one so far I've been able to find.

LE

Hhmm. If it's maritime security they're after, wouldn't using a ship like HMS Ocean be a better idea? Allows for the carrying of booties in case you need to board any shipping plus the helicopters and boats to carry them about places.

I hope that the Americans are sending a couple of carriers groups at the same time then, otherwise it isn't exactly going to be all that intimidating to Iran. Laughable more like. One carrier, one destroyer, a frigate and three support vessels aren't so much a threat as a massive target.